Can communication be purely practical?

One afternoon in the Krishnamurti Centre UK, he sat opposite a long-standing visitor of the place talking about a particular teaching both had listened to that day. He was communicating his experience of watching the tree outside the window, which was majestically looking over the house that both sat in, without any activity of thought. He could feel at one with it, so he said.

But he caught himself with another thought, somewhere far off what he would usually be aware of. It was the urge to show off, to be considered worthy of being a teacher himself. His opposite seemed like a kind and gentle man who would leave room for this to be. So he chose to share it with him, putting himself at risk by speaking out what he had witnessed within.

That’s when the conversation took a turn. The inquiry had both ended and begun.

We wanted to get to the bottom of the very nature of our communication. Why do we communicate? What is our intention in doing so? What is the source of communication? 

We could see thought as one source and quickly distinguished between psychological thought in communication, which is about oneself and of oneself, and practical thought, which engages in reality as it is. The former multi-layered, somewhat strategic, and seemingly complex, the latter straightforward and immediate. We felt drawn to the simplicity and beauty of practical thought and wanted to investigate this further. Could communication be purely practical? Not in dealing with practicalities only, but in coming straight from the heart, without the filter of the inner voice. There was another turning point in the conversation. 

It is your inner voice is what needs attention, is it not? As we watched it carefully, stripped it back by each putting it out in the open and taking responsibility for it, we were able to go beyond it. It dissolved and we could communicate directly and resourcefully. There was a different kind of listening available. Listening for what is required, for what wants to be communicated, birthed, and brought to the light. Our conversation felt in service to something greater, unknown to both us. We were in service of transformation.

Photo of the inside of the Krishnamurti Centre in Brockwood Park, South Downes National Park, Hampshire.